Surā

Surā, “liquor”

Grammar: feminine noun: “liquor”, an intoxicating drink.

Meaning: liquor; in the strict sense of the dharma-śāstra, the drink made from flour. Surāpāna, the drinking of surā, is named with the killing of a brāhmaṇa, the theft of gold and the violation of the guru’s bed. The word is not sura, a deva.

In the scriptures: the Agni Purāṇa uses the word in these places.

• Madya and surā: in the teaching on prāyaścitta, the Agni Purāṇa names nine drinks: pānaka, the madhu of grapes, the drinks made from dates, from the palm, from sugar-cane juice, mādhvīka, ṭaṅka-mādhvīka, maireya and that from the coconut tree. All these are madya (intoxicants), but they are not surā; only that made from flour is true surā. These madyas are forbidden to the three varṇas. One who drank surā becomes pure by drinking water that is boiling hard, or by eating only grain-particles for a year, or by eating oil-cake once a night for a year; for the removal of the fault of surāpāna he wears matted hair, the sign of a surā-drinker and a blanket. One who stole gold, one who drank surā, one who killed a brāhmaṇa and one who violated the guru’s bed become pure in twelve years, sleeping on the ground, wearing matted hair and eating leaves, roots and fruits once a day (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 173).
• Its fruit: Agnideva, telling of the narakas and the births that follow, says that one who drank madya is born as a caṇḍāla or a mleccha, and that the teeth of one who drank surā are black (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 371).
• The yogī’s rule: in the teaching on the yamas and niyamas of the ashṭāṅga yoga, Agnideva says that surā is of three kinds, made from jaggery, from flour and from madhu. Woman is the fourth surā, which deludes this whole world: one is intoxicated just by seeing her, while surā intoxicates only after drinking; therefore the yogī should not look at her (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 372).

Related terms: Madya · Surāpāna · Mahāpāpa · Prāyaścitta · Maireya

Sources

• Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 173, 371, 372